\tPlease leave shotguns and knives at home when I say something sweet about Caitlin Clark: She can be found easily without the WNBA. Want to see her splash Magic Johnson with ice cream and smash Charles Barkley\u2019s cheeseburger? Capital One has the ad. State Farm, Gatorade and Wilson are in the commercial circus, along with Nike, which is about to retail her signature sneaker for $140.<\/p>\n
\tTravis Scott and the Kelce boys are helping with the viral presentation. Why? Clark is mentioned in the context of Michael Jordan\u2019s early shoes. \u201cNike\u2019s signature roster features all-time greats, and I\u2019m incredibly proud to join some of the best athletes in the world,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m excited to share a first look at what we\u2019ve started to create together.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIt has occurred to me that Clark doesn\u2019t need the WNBA. The league could fold today \u2014 without a new labor deal, after days and nights of meetings since last Tuesday \u2014 and she would continue on with the most important journey in women\u2019s sports history. Unlike other giant athletes who have bargained for new collective bargaining deals, she could start her own enterprise. Remember, she is why 18.7 million viewers watched her play in the national title game less than two years ago. In the pros, she has battled opponents who have tried to kick her, taunt her, bruise her and injure her, choosing revenge-via-intimidation and ignoring her mystical way of bringing attention to a once-lame association.<\/p>\n
\tShe should be entering her third season since Iowa. Her prime is awaited by all of us, knowing Clark can attract millions by simply finding her place and lofting a shot from 25 to 30 feet. Days ago, she urged colleagues and management to cut a deal. Why should she pause her fabled career for warfare when the NFL and NBA have avoided labor problems? Women\u2019s hoops was about to burn brightly because of Clark, A\u2019ja Wilson, Paige Bueckers, Napheesa Collier, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. The deadline to reach an agreement was Monday. It\u2019s almost Tuesday, as I file this.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI don\u2019t understand why we don\u2019t just get in a room and iron it out and shake hands,\u201d Clark said days ago, before leaving for a World Cup qualifier in Puerto Rico. \u201cThat\u2019s how business is. You look each other in the eye, you shake hands, you respect both sides. For me, that\u2019s what I would love to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tShe isn\u2019t a fan of commissioner Cathy Englebert, who reportedly told Collier that Clark \u201cshould be grateful\u201d to play in the WNBA while fighting injuries. Clark said Collier \u201cmade a lot of very valid points\u201d and \u201csaid it all\u201d in her comments. You wonder if she looks at the mess and wonders if 16 billionaires could put together a new league? Wouldn\u2019t they do it for her, with support from her endorsement leaders?<\/p>\n
\tThe league starts May 8, with a college draft and a two-team expansion setup also on the immediate calendar. A delay would threaten what is critical about the sport. Clark must be front and center or hype significantly dials down. There were days when her battles with Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky were bigger than Major League Baseball. They can\u2019t keep negotiating week after week. The public lost interest months ago.<\/p>\n
\tThe players, of course, should be paid what they deserve \u2014 mostly Clark. If training camp doesn\u2019t happen on April 19, the WNBA will disappear in the public frontage. Monday, Engelbert said: \u201cWe\u2019re working as hard as we can to get it done as quickly as possible. We\u2019re going to keep going. We\u2019re going to get this deal done.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tBut executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson said this from the union perspective: \u201cWe\u2019re still working. We\u2019re still fighting. There\u2019s still some things \u2014 big issues, things \u2014 that we have to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tIf they are spilling small crumbs of progress, we watch Clark online. What she always emphasized was dealing cooly with media. The other day, when the mixed zone opened in Puerto Rico, she walked past mobs of reporters beside a wall of ads. Then, she completely turned away and looked at the ads before leaving. Is she tired of the process? Last season, her health problems prompted high-priced tickets to drop near $25.<\/p>\n
\tShe wants to play basketball. She is not certain she\u2019ll have a place this season. I would demand a new commissioner if I were her. If nothing else, call money people.<\/p>\n
\tWe want to see her filled with joy and verve. On the verge of a strike, she is sad.<\/p>\n
\tAnd mad.<\/p>\n
\t###<\/p>\n
\tJay Mariotti, called \u201cwithout question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,\u2019\u2019 writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk\/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Please leave shotguns and knives at home when I say something sweet about Caitlin Clark: She can be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":541359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-541358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/541359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}